


before our innocence was lost

by Sanamun



Series: Seaglass [3]
Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Careers (Hunger Games), Careers Have Issues, Dark But Sweet, District 4, Games School, Gen, Implied Canon-Typical Creepiness, Kid Fic, Panem Is Not A Nice Place, Pre-Canon, Precocious Crushes, creepy children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-07
Updated: 2016-09-07
Packaged: 2018-08-13 19:06:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7982857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sanamun/pseuds/Sanamun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Victors' daughter Annie Cresta is 10 years old and has just started games school, like the strongest and brightest (and most privileged) of District Four's children always should, Finnick Odair is the cute sad-eyed classmate she wants to know more about, and neither of them are yet killers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	before our innocence was lost

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Song to say Goodbye" by Placebo. Also, this is typed up from my notebook and thus unedited, I apologise in advance.

Annie Cresta is ten years old. She's just started Games school, but she's already proven herself to be one of the better students; better than some of the twleve year olds, even, and they could be reaped for real.

Annie has, shh, a little crush on Finnick Odair, whose a year and a half older than her and is starting to learn to use a trident. He's just some little fish brat from the coast, but his skin is a lovely golden colour whereas Annie's is just plain brown and far too covered in freckles and scars from where she doesn't watch what she's doing. Finnick's eyes are so blue-green that they look like somebody bottled the ocean, and Annie secretly feels proud of herself for thinking of that metaphor. Finnick Odair is _beautiful_.

Annie is almost sure that Finnick would survive the games if he got reaped when he was older, despite the fact that he's not nearly as good at throwing knives as Annie. He's great with his trident, sure, but c'mon- why would there be a trident in the arena? It's hardly practical. Annie despairs a little of would-be careers who base their strategies on flashy gimmicks. They just come off as total show-offs, and they're mostly dumb. Mostly. Except Finnick.

But it doesn't even matter, because people _like_ Finnick, because he's pretty and soft-spoken and he laughs easily and when he smiles it's like the sun coming out after a storm, and because, unlike Annie, he hasn't been suspended from school for a week for biting Carrolyne Murrough on the arm during class while the other kids looked on in horror and whispered horrible, untrue things about Annie, the crazy little freak, even though Carrolyne shouldn't have kept on bothering her after Annie told her to stop.

Half the district is in love with Finnick Odair already, Annie sometimes thinks, even the adults. Its probably hard not to be.

She's not expecting to see him here though, in her secret place, waiting beside the sea in a storm. He's got a few lengths of rope tied to his belt, woven by Miranda Odair, and a couple fishhooks- his father's craft. There's an almost hungry look in those pretty green eyes that makes Annie wonder if he's going to try to sell her something, because the Odairs are poor and she's one of the most privileged kids in the district, little victor's daughter Annie Cresta who will never have to gut fish to support her family.

Finnick just smiles, though, a thousand megawatt cheeky grin that seems ready-made to look good on Capitol TV some day, and waves Annie over. It's a strangely cheerful gesture that seems somehow at odds with the boy wearing it, all long limbs he hasn't quite grown into yet and soaked to the bone.

"Cresta! What are you doing out in weather like this?"

Annie flushes scarlet, embarassed at being caught staring but privatley thrilled that Finnick recognised her, because he's _the_ Finnick Odair and she's just a skinny first year kid with good aim and bad manners. First year or not, though, Annie Cresta is still a _career_ , so she tries her best to compose herself. She's the picture of preteen professionalism as she turns to Finnick and explains that she came out to look for anything interesting washed up on the beach.

"I don't mind the rain," Annie adds, as an afterthought, "It's almost nice."

"Really?" Finnick makes a face, and Annie remembers that he's almost as young as she is, "Because I can't say I'm a fan of it, myself."

Under normal circumstances, Finnick's hair is copper streaked with gold, but when it's wet like this it's almost as brown as Annie's own, and hangs so that it drips into his eyes. He's lovely, but Annie thinks that he needs to start wearing a coat; stupid boy, putting appearances first like he wouldn't look good in anything anyway. She does not think that maybe Finnick just forgot to bring one, or that maybe the Odairs couldn't afford it this year, not with how many of them there are and how fast Finnick is growing.

Annie also does not think she says the part about how Finnick would look good in anything aloud, but she does, and Finnick looks momentarily startled before rearranging his perfect face into an amused little smile. It looks wrong, somehow, out of place. A plastic mask that doesn't suit him, or the conversation. Annie prefers the way he looked when he was complaining about the weather.

"I didn't know you did this, though," Annie says, trying to push past the awkwardness with an abrupt subject change. "Sell stuff, I mean. For your parents?" She pauses. "Shouldn't you be in school?"

"I could ask the same thing of you, Annelle Cresta." Finnick replies, with a small smirk that fits better on his face than the last one did, but still. He's mocking her. Annie knows that careers are supposed to stay level-headed, but she's still learning to balance that with childish frustration, and in this instance, frustration wins.

"It's Annie." She pouts, honest to god pouts, and it makes her feel younger than ever. She's making herself look like a total baby in front of Finnick Odair, but much like trying to hold back a tidal wave, it is very difficult for Annie Cresta to stop herself. "And I can't go to school because I got suspended. So."

Finnick's eyes widen in mock-horror; "Why, Miss Cresta! I am shocked to hear such a thing, I always assumed you were the very picture of innocence. What'd you do?"

"Bit Carolynne on the arm." Annie shrugs. No big deal.

"And let me guess, she totally had it coming, right?" Annie's used to the older kids hiding their laughter and rolling their eyes at her; Annie Cresta, the little first year girl who acts like she could win the games already just 'cause her Mama did. Usually it annoys her to no end, but somehow she doesn't mind so much when it's Finnick. Maybe it's because he doesn't mean for it to be _mean_ , or maybe it's just because of how the little lopsided smile makes his lips look.

Lips that Annie was staring at, again. But that's okay because everyone watched Finnick, from the kids in her class to the seventeen and eighteen year olds almost ready for the games, because Finnick isn't even reaping age yet but he's _gorgeous_ , and Annie thinks even some of the grownups like him like that, maybe, though obviously they can't and won't do anything about it. It almost seems unfair, becuase Finnick gets all of the attention without trying and doesn't even seem to really _want_ it.

Annie will never, ever admit it out loud, but she's a little jealous of Finnick Odair.

"I should probably be getting back." Annie says, biting her lower lip and getting pink glitter gloss on her front teeth, "You know how my Mama can get."

She won't get mad at Annie for being late, but she'll worry herself, because Lorelai Cresta won the 49th Games when she was eighteen and that means that she doesn't like the idea of Annie being in danger, and she has these horrible nightmares where she wakes up screaming, and sometimes she'll snap at Annie for reasons that don't make sense, or go away inside herself for a while, or...

But at the end of the day, Lorelai killed people with a cool sword and came home her district's hero, no matter that maybe she didn't come back quite right, and Annie lives in  victors' village so she knows none of them ever really do, it's not that there's anything wrong with her Mama or anything. And all Miranda Odair does is be poor and sad and make rope, so Annie thinks she's still totally winning in the cool mom contest, really.

"I'll see you around, then," says Finnick, "Have a good storm, Annelle Cresta."

"And you, Finn Odair." Annie replies, before stifling a giggle with one small, brown hand, and running off across the sand, leaving Finnick Odair, the eleven year old heartthrob of District Four, alone in the freezing rain.


End file.
